Running-account hotel cabinet or rack.



No. 716,99l. 'Patented nec. 3o, |902.

E. L. noDsoN. RUNNING ACCOUNT HOTEL CABINET AND RACK.

(Application filed June 2, 1962.)

2 Sheets-Sheet J.

(No Modal.)

Inenor' rr-xs cams warms cn, wom-umm, wAsmNGTON, n. c.

` No. 7|6,99I. Patented Dec. 30, |902. E. L. DUDSUN. v

RUNNING AGBOUNT HOTEL CABINET AND RACK.

(Appucaeio'n med .rune 2, woz.)

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

F I um 101*Z '29 Z. 'ff-Il `:lf-Ulli -I-L-ii-i-i-i-i is -'12 4 s lf-"lg, 7

NTT STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDVIN LEVIS DODSON, OF BELLEVUE, KENTUCKY.

RUNNING-A QCOUNT HOTEL CABINET OR RACK.

SPECIFICATION forming'part of Letters Patent No. I716,991, dated December 30, 1902. Application filed .Tune 2, 1902. Serial No. 109.934. (No model.)

To all w/wnt it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWIN LEWIS DoDsoN, a citizen of the United States of Am erica, and a resident of Bellevue, in the county of Campbell and State of Kentucky, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Running-Account Hotel Cabinets or Racks, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to certain improvements in ling cases or cabinets, and has for its object to produce a device of this character of a simple and inexpensive nature and of a compact and strong construction which shall be especially adapted for use in hotels for facilitating the keeping of the accounts of the several guests, so that the time heretofore required in keeping book-accounts is greatly reduced and the liability of mistakes or omissions of items from the accounts is lessened.

The invention consists in certain novel features of the construction, combination, and arrangement of the several parts of the improved ling case or cabinet, whereby certain important advantages are attained and the device is made simpler, cheaper, and otherwise better adapted and more convenient for use, all as will be hereinafter fully set forth.

The novel features of the invention will be carefully defined in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings,which serve to illustrate the invention, Figure l is a perspective view showing a portion of a case or cabinet embodying my improvements, and Fig. 2 is a plan view showing one of the elements of the case or cabinet Withdrawn therefrom with statement-blanks attached. Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2, but showing the single element with the statement or account blanks omitted. Fig. 4 is a View showing a form of duplicating or carbon sheet adapted for use in the improved filing case or cabinet. Fig. 5 is a partial view showing the holding means for the duplicate or under sheet of the statement-blanks. Fig. 6 is an enlarged section taken through one of the individual elements or members of the device in the plane indicated by the line ct a in Fig. 3, the statement-blanks being shown in position thereon. Fig. 7 is a view showing an attachment designed for use in connection with the individual members or elements of the deviceas, for example, when two guests occupy the same rooin. Fig. 8 is a planview of the devices shown in Fig. 7, but showing the same in closed position. Fig. 9 is an end View of the devices shown in Figs. 7 and 8. In this view the parts are shown upon a larger scale and are also shown in partially opened or unfolded positions.

The improved filing case or cabinet constructed according to myinvention comprises a frame or body portion l, formed with rows or series of elongated openings 2, herein shown as arranged in vertical series and adapted to receive the severalindividual elements or members 3 3 of the case or cabinet upon which the accounts are held.

The improved liling case or cabinet may be made up in any style and may be of any desired proportions, dependent upon circumstances. Also, while the device is especially well adapted for use in keeping room-accounts in hotels, I do not desire to limit myself to this special use of the device, since it will be evident that with suitable changes and modications the device may also be applied for other purposes.V

Each of the individual members or elements 3 3 comprises a drawer slide or tablet 4, formed from a piece of wood of rectangular form adapted to be readily slid within one of the openings 2 ofthe frame or body portion l and having the its front edge a raised end wall 5, which may be formed from thin sheet metal. At one side of said raised end wall 5, and preferably upon the left-hand side thereof, is produced a squared enlargement or projection 6, adapted to serve as a handle, by means of which the slide or tablet may be manipulated to draw it from the frame or to insert it in its proper opening 2 in said frame. As shown in thedrawings, the enlargements 6 upon the several members or elements 3 in each vertical series are arranged in vertical alinement, and said enlargements will be provided upon their outer surfaces, as indicated in the drawings, with numbers corresponding with the several room numbers of the hotel in which the device is used. The raised end Wall 5 of each slide or tablet when said Wall is `formed from sheet metal, as herein shown, has its right-hand IOO end bent outward and over upon itself to produce a vertical groove or channel 7, in which is adapted to be held one edge of a cardboard slip 9, the opposite edge of which is adapted to be engaged in a kerf or channel 8, cut in the side of the projection 6 upon the left-hand side of the slide or tablet. The cardboard slips 9 are ot lengths somewhat greater than the distances between the securing devices 7 and 8 and are to be bent or curved, as indicated upon the drawings, in order'to permit them to be inserted in the said securing devices 7 and 8, the elasticity of the cardboard holding the slips engaged with the channels, but permitting them to be readily1 disengaged therefrom when desired. The slips 9 are adapted to receive the-names of the occupants of the respective rooms, as indicated at x in Fig. 1. Each slide or tablet is provided with means for detachably holding upon it record-blanks, which blanks will be, in the case of a hotel account-cabinet, duplicate statement or account blanks separated by a manifolding or duplicating sheet, so that all entries made upon the upper or original blank or sheet will be duplicated upon the under or duplicate sheet. As shown in the drawings, the blank-holding devices comprise pins 1U 10, projecting upward from the wooden plate 4, of which the bottom of the slide or tablet is formed, said pins 10 being adapted to pass through openings in the several sheets which are designed to be carried upon the slide or tablet to hold said sheets in position.

In the drawings, 12 indicates the outer record-sheet or original, and 14 indicates the under record-sheet or duplicate, while 13 indicates the intervening manifolding or carbon sheet. The record-sheets 12 and 14 are printed similarly and are, as herein shown, in the form of statement-blanks and carry upon them, as indicated aty in Fig. 2, printed schedules of the items most commonly charged up against the guests in hotels. The upper or outer record-sheet 12 is provided with perforations or openings 11, suitably arranged for the passage of the pins 10 10 upon the slide or tablet, so that when the said sheet 12 is pressed down upon the top side of the slide or tablet the perforations 11 will register'with the pins 10, which will pass through the perforations and serve to hold the sheet 12 upon the slide or tablet. The under or lower record-sheet 14 is also provided with openings 15, corresponding in arrangement with the openings 11'in the upper or outer sheet 12; but the said openings 15 are extended or cut through to the edges of the said lower sheet 14, so that by grasping the opposite edge of the said sheet the lower record-sheet may be disengaged from the pins 10 when pressed over the same to hold it upon the slide or tablet in the manner described above. The intervening manifolding-sheet 13 is formed with perforations or openings 11, corresponding in form and arrangement with the openings 11 in the upper or outer record-sheet 12. In applying the sheets 12, 13, and 14 to the slide or tablet the three sheets will be arranged in proper order one upon the other, the sheet 12 being uppermost, the sheet 13 next below, and the sheet 14 at the bottom, and when arranged in this position the openings in the several sheets will correspond with each other, so that when the three superimposed sheets are pressed down upon the slide or tablet the openings in said sheets will correspond in pcsition and receive the pins 10 10 upon the tablet, and be thereby held to said tablet. In removing the sheets from the slides or tablet after an account has been settled or footed up at the departure of a guest the upper or outer sheet will be irst lifted off the manifolding-sheet 13 and is presented to thc guest as a statement of his account with the hotel, after which the lower or duplicate record-sheet 14 is grasped at its edge opposite to the openings 15 therein and is pulled edgewise to detach the sheet from the pins 10 10 of the slide or tablet, so that the said lower record-sheet may be withdrawn from beneath the manifolding-sheet 13. To permit the edge of the sheet 14 to be readily grasped between the fingers, I provide in the edge of the wooden bottom 4 of the slide or tablet a thumb notch or recess 16, and in the edge of the manifolding-sheet 13 I also pro-I vide a cut--ont portion 17, corresponding in location with said recess 16, so that the edge portion of the record-sheet 14 will be exposed,

so as to be readily grasped by the tingers for i its removal at this point.

Where rooms are fitted for the accommodation of two guests, it will of course be necessary to provide for holding upon the individual members or elements of the device separate accounts or records for each of the room occupants, and for this purpose some or all of the said individual elements or members 3 of the device may be constructed as shown in Figs. 7, 8, and 9. In these views the wooden bottoms 4 of the devices are proyvided with metal reinforces 18 4along their edge portions, and said reinforces 18 are raised above the faces of the bottoms 4 at the end thereof opposite to the raised front wall 5. To the raised reinforces 18 are pivoted the ends of links 19 19 ot' equal lengths, the opposite ends of which are pivoted to the edge portions of an auxiliary tablet 4L of a form and size similar to the wooden bottom 4 of the slide or tablet. By this arrangement it will be seen that when the member or element 3 of the device is to be inserted in its opening 2 in the frame 1 the auxiliary tablet 4a may be folded down upon the top of the main tablet, as indicated in Fig. S, swinging upon its links 19 and resting upon the pins 10, by means of which one set of record-blanks are held uponV the main tablet beneath the auxiliary tablet 4. The said auxiliary tablet is also provided with a depending pin or stud 20, adapted to rest upon the main tablet at IOO IIO

the edge thereof opposite to the pins l0, so as to hold the auxiliary tablet level on the main tablet. The auxiliary tablet also carries pins l0 on its upper face similar in arrangement to the pins lO ou the main tablet for holding a second set of record-blanks. When the accounts of both or either ot the two occupants of a room are to be footed up or settled, the melnber or element 3 may be removed from its opening 2 in the frame and the auxiliary tablet 4 may be lifted off the main tablet and laid down flat alongside the same, as indicated in Fig. 7, whereupon the two sets of account-blanks will be exposed. The links 19 19 may, if desired, be made detachable, so that the auxiliary tablets when not required for use may be detached from the members 3.

In the use of the improved filing case or cabinet as a running-account hotel-rack the numbers upon the projections 6 and the slips 9 give the names of the occupants ofthe several rooms and also indicate which rooms are vacant in the same way as the ordinary hotelrack in common use. When a guest registers and is assigned to a room, a slip 9 is filled out With his name and number of room and applied to the slide o r tablet upon which the corresponding room-number is marked, and the record-blanks are applied to the pins 10 of said slide or tablet and filled out with the name of the guest and the rate. If any items are to be charged up against the occupant, these are written upon the original blank l2 opposite the corresponding items in the prin ted schedule. When the guest departs, all that is required to be done is to foot up the account indicated upon the upper record-blank l2 of the corresponding slide or tablet, after which said blank l2 is removed and presented to the guest as a voucher for his settled account, the lower record-blank la being also removed and filed away for future reference. By this means it will be seen that the keeping of ledger-accounts with the room occupants is altogether obviated and a great volume of Work is avoided, since the several items charged up to the room occu pants are placed directly upon the blanks carried by the tablets or slides and are not required to be posted in the hotel-books in the ordinary manner. By this method of keeping the roomaccounts there is also much less liability of mistakes from the omission or wrong entry of charges due te similarity of names or to inadvertence, and there is also a great saving of time. Also by means of the improved filing case or cabinet any number of accounts may be footed up at the same time, so that in case more than one guest should depart at the same time each may have his account footed up without delay. Vhere ledger-accounts are kept, this would be impossible, since access could be had to but one account at a time.

From the above description it will be seen that the improved running-account rack or cabinet constructed according to my invention is of an extremely simple and inexpensive nature and is especially Well adapted for use, since its use results in both a saving of time and labor in keeping accounts and also reduces the liability to loss and mistakes, and it will also be obvious from the above description that the device is capable of some modification without material departure from the principles and spirit of the invention, and for this reason I do not wish to be understood as limiting myself to the precise form or arrangement of the several parts of the device herein set forth.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a device of the character described, a member having a raised end wall provided with means for detachably holding an index card or slip and having a flattened portion adapted to be slid into an opening in a frame and provided with record-holding means, and an auxiliary tablet also provided with recordholding means and having links connected with said attened portion, substantially as set forth.

2. A device of the character described comprising a series of members 0r elements adapted to be slid into openings in a frameand provided with record-holding means and having end walls the outer sides of which are provided each with a numbered projection and with devices for holding opposite ends of an index card or slip, one of said index-cardholding devices being formed of a recess cut in one side of said numbered projection, substantially as set forth.

3. In a device of the characterdescribed, a member having a raised end Wall adapted to receive an index card or slip and having a fiattened portion adapted to be slid into an opening in a frame and provided with recordholding means and an auxiliary tablet also provided with record-holding means and having pivotal connections with the flattened portion and adapted to be folded upon the same, substantially as set forth.

4. A device of the character described comprising a series of members or elements adapted to be slid into openings in a frame and formed of iiattened parts having end walls formed from sheet metal extended upward from the forward edges of the flattened parts, each of the sheet-metal end walls being formed at one end with a bent portion adapted to receive and hold one end of an index card or slip and the other end of each end wall being provided With a numbered projection one side of which is provided with means to hold the other end of an index card or slip and the iiattened part of each member or element being provided with record holding means, substantially as set forth.

5. In a device of the character described, a member having a raised end wall provided with means for detachably holding an index ICO IIO

card or slip and having a flattened portion l iiattened portion vof llie member, substanadapted to be slid into an opening in a frame and provided With record-holding means7V an auxiliary tablet also provided with recordholding means and two links at each end of said tablet, each link having one end pivotally connected with the auxiliary tablet and its other end pivot'ally connected with said tially as set forth.

Signed at Cincinnati, Ohio, this 31st day of May, 1902.

EDWIN LEVIS DODSON. Vibnesses:

J. S. WEATHERBY, J. R. BENDER. 

